Terminal (Visceral Book 4)

by Adam Thielen

  Tsenka’s hand hovered over the controls as she decided whether or not to flee. As she hesitated, a wall of white rose up in front of the cockpit window and all around the craft. Cho felt her body lighten and realized she was falling down a massive, perfectly shaped hole. The opening above became a ball of light and then was eclipsed by a large disc, snuffing out her view of the outside world.

  Cho stood and prepared for a fight, strapping on her sheath and gun holster. The nocturnal pulled out a large ballistic shield made from heavy steel and propped it in front of her with the barrel of her gun poking through a small slit near the top.

  As the craft descended, a grinding noise filled the cabin and vibrations traveled up Tsenka’s feet and rattled everything not bolted into place. The dark night outside the windows turned to a dim gray. Then the falling stopped, and the crouched daywalker nearly fell backward. Cho’s mapping hardware, using air pressure, magnetic north, and motion detection, estimated she had traveled almost a kilometer into the earth.

  Tsenka waited, her gun trained on the side hatch, the most likely door to breach. But no one intruded. Instead, the radio sounded with the same voice as before.

  “Ms. Cho,” the man said. “You may deboard now. Mr. Trent is waiting.”

  “Hey, Tsenka!” she heard him yell through the copter’s hull.

  Cho’s body relaxed. She would know his voice anywhere. She knocked over the shield and ran to the hatch and pressed the emergency release. The door fell open with a deafening thud that echoed off the stone walls.

  And there he was, dressed more casually than she had ever seen. His hair was shorter, and stubble had started to take over his face, but it was him. Cho ran her fingers through her hair then strutted down the ramp. She realized she was still holding her gun and quickly holstered it.

  Tsenka scanned the welcoming bay. It was a large circular room with a few armed men Cho immediately recognized as vampires. Matthias spread his arms and waited for her, but when Tsenka reached him, she gave him a quick punch to the gut.

  Matthias coughed and doubled over. “Oh, fuck. Wasn’t ready.”

  Tsenka rolled her eyes. “Come on, stand up so I can really hug you.”

  But he continued wheezing at the ground. He gasped, then said, “It’s coming. Just ate. Jesus.” After a few more breaths he stood up, still bent slightly, and looked at her. He did not outstretch his arms.

  “That was for disappearing,” she said before wrapping around his torso, arms included.

  “Missed you too,” he replied. “Glad you could finally make it.”

  “Finally?” she asked, looking up at him. “I just got your message yesterday… or day before.”

  Matthias sighed. “Communication with civilization is tricky.”

  She let go of her former lover and mentor and looked around the room. “What is this place, Matt?”

  “This,” he said, gesturing around him with a grand sweep of his arm, “is the great vampire refuge New Apulon, or as some just call it, the Refuge. Or, as you would think of it, Haven.”

  Tsenka’s eyes stopped focusing on Matthias. Her hand reached the grip of her gun as the hairs on the back of her neck stood up and her nervous system lit up with fear.

  “How did I not see it?” she said aloud.

  “Whoa, whoa, Tsenka,” urged Matthias. “Chill. You’re among friends.”

  But Cho stayed hot. “How could you do this?” she asked, glancing at him then at one of the security guards.

  “Forget I said Haven,” tried Matthias. “They were from here, but otherwise there’s no relation.”

  “You lost your mind,” assessed Cho. “I spent the better part of my career tracking these terrorists.”

  “Oh, come on,” said Matthias, rolling his eyes. “I know this might be a letdown, but Haven as you think of it doesn’t exist. Never really did. They took much more of a risk letting you in than your capture is worth. Think it through.” Matthias turned and pointed at one of the guards. “Look at him. He’s not even interested in you.”

  The guard raised his rifle halfway, staring at the excited Cho.

  “Okay, so he’s a little interested,” admitted Trent. “But you kind of have a feral vibe going on right now.”

  “How long have you been here?” asked Tsenka.

  “There’s time to talk later. Maybe we should—”

  “How long?”

  “Oh, about a year and a half,” he answered.

  Tsenka took her hand off her weapon and flipped off the guard staring at her.

  “That a girl, getting off to a good start,” said Trent. “How about we get a drink and I can get you settled in. The trip must have been long.”

  “I slept for part of it,” said Tsenka, locking eyes with him. “You are going to tell me everything.”

  “Oh, you have no idea,” replied Matthias.

  “I have a thousand questions right now, and I don’t know where to start.”

  “Don’t be in a huge hurry. You’ll be bored once you have your answers.”

  A triad of cranes pinched Cho’s monocopter around the edges and lifted it up while a rolling platform moved underneath. Once the craft was positioned on top of it, the platform rolled to the side and the large disc that had carried the copter down ascended into the air and through the large hole in the ceiling.

  “Am I a prisoner now?” asked Cho.

  “All entry and exits have to be approved.”

  “So I am.”

  “Once you’ve chatted with the… leader, and spent a couple days here, I’m sure none of the council will object,” he explained.

  “Their own council,” said Tsenka.

  “Well, someone must make decisions,” said Trent. He put an arm over her shoulders. “Come on, let’s go see some shit.”

  He led her through a checkpoint, then a barracks complete with two security officers sleeping. After another checkpoint, the small rooms and corridors opened into an enormous dome, lined with a half dozen balconies with stairs leading up and down the tiers. The top of the dome appeared to be a starry night, but Cho knew that to be impossible. She stopped and stared, amazed at what she saw.

  Vampires stood and gawked from outside their rooms while others still walked about the open common area complete with turf and a large tree in the center. Underneath its branches sat various seats and tables. Signs for shops and food vendors hung along the perimeter of the first floor.

  Ping-pong tables, billiards, and a hard court that was being used for basketball decorated the large open space. The murmur of various conversations filled Cho’s ears as an underground township stood before her.

  “Welcome to the Refuge,” said Matthias. “A city of our own.”

  “It’s been here this whole time, hasn’t it?” remarked Cho.

  “And much longer,” he replied.

  She continued to marvel.

  “There’s two more pods like this one, along with two support pods for growing food.”

  “How many of us—them are there?”

  “Over a thousand now,” he revealed. “Small as far as towns go, but there’s only a few thousand vampires in the entire world.”

  Tsenka sighed. “She lied… again.”

  “What? Who?”

  “Have you seen Desre lately?” asked Cho.

  “I only really met her once,” said Trent. “Why?”

  “You said something about my quarters or something?”

  Matthias nodded. “Yup. Nothing to write home about, but will give you some privacy and a place to sleep. Want some food first?”

  “Maybe later.”

  Matthias’s expression soured for a moment. He looked at his com. “You’re on the third floor of this pod, pod A. Room three-thirty-seven. Let’s go.”

  As they walked, Tsenka said, “You still have a com. Does that mean you can call someone on the outside?”

  He shook his head. “No. We are too deep and too far from any relay stations. Even satellites can’t transmit down h
ere.” Matthias stopped outside the door to Tsenka’s assigned room. “Despite the lack of network access, the city is very advanced. This door is already programmed to recognize your face.”

  She stepped in front of the metal and it slid open, beckoning her inside. She complied and Matthias followed. He gestured to the phone on the wall.

  “Most coms are difficult to set up for ad hoc connections, so we have phones. Everything is physically wired. That includes the smart screen.”

  “What’s the point?” asked Cho.

  “You can access the intranet,” he replied. “There’s a few live sites hosted here, as well as copied versions of much of the public web. We get new dumps every couple weeks. Some sites work better than others, but no shit-posting unfortunately.”

  “That’s a deal breaker.” Tsenka shut the door. “Have a seat, old friend.”

  “I know you want all the answers now, but maybe you should meet some of the leaders first,” said Matthias.

  Tsenka looked at him, and then at a contoured metal chair near the bed. Matthias shrugged and sat.

  “This place must have a fusion plant,” she said.

  “It did at one time,” said Matthias. “But it’s all hotboxes now.”

  “How many armed guards?”

  “Jesus, Cho. I don’t think you need to worry about that.”

  “How did you get here?” she asked.

  “One day a guy knocked on my door. He asked if I’d like to see a city of vampires. I played along and ended up here.”

  “Do they draw vampire names out of a hat?” Tsenka wondered aloud.

  “They research candidates,” said Trent. “I guess there was a lot of debate about whether to invite me due to my past, but I’m sort of a legend and boogeyman here… or at least I was. I don’t think anyone cares anymore.”

  “I bet you love that.”

  “A little.”

  “Matthias, if Haven came from here, then don’t you think there are still extremists?”

  “It’s been over forty years,” said Matthias.

  “So after the failed attack, the leadership just decided to give up on conquest?” she prodded.

  “The elder has told me that Makida went rogue, taking the airship and those she radicalized with her,” explained Matthias. “She had returned from a long hiatus with new ideas in her head about the nocturnal’s place on the food chain, and her ideas spread like a cancer. But before anything could be done, she jacked the fortress.”

  “Do you believe him, this elder?” asked Cho.

  “Yeah, he seems like… well, like someone with no use for deception,” he answered. “His name is Andrei. Wait till you meet him. That will be a trip.”

  “What about now?” asked Cho, sitting on the edge of the bed.

  Matthias stood. “I’ll tell the new arrivals committee you want to meet with him. May take a couple days, though.” He grabbed the receiver off her phone’s base and dialed numbers on its screen. “Hello. Yes. She’s ready to see him,” he said. “Tsenka Cho. Yes. I want to be there. Okay. Bye.”

  “You want to be there?”

  “He’d probably want me there anyway,” said Matthias with a grin. “He likes me.”

  “Uh huh, sure. Ey Matt, you aren’t in any sort of trouble, are you?” She leaned back with her arms supporting her.

  “Does it look like I’m in trouble?”

  “No.”

  “Is that why you came?” he asked.

  She told him the story of Desre’s appearance and her trip to India and the seer’s manipulations. “Now I don’t know what to make of it. I don’t know if I’ve even been speaking with her or something masquerading as her.”

  Matthias’s eyebrows rose at the mention of the UTI. “Well, either someone wanted you out of the way, or maybe she can see something we can’t. But the UTI has been of some concern since I got here.”

  “How’s that?”

  “No scouts that travel there return,” he replied. “Likely tortured and killed based on intelligence intercepts the council receives.”

  “And you know about this how?”

  “Like I said, he likes me.”

  “You did say that. You also mentioned an intranet,” she said. “I would think if this syndicate or confederacy or whatever it is—”

  “Refuge.”

  “If they truly want peace, then I can access their data on Makida and the other rogues, don’t you think?”

  Matthias’s grin went flat. “You want to investigate them.”

  “Surely they think I’m here to do that already,” she said. “So you tell me, how confident are you in your new friends?”

  Trent’s answer did not come swiftly enough to convince Tsenka, but after a delay, he nodded. “Things are never that simple. And if you go on a witch hunt, you’ll accomplish nothing. But you know what? If it makes you feel better, by all means. Almost everything involving the city’s inner workings is public. You will have your hands full. When we meet with Andrei, you can ask him for anything you think is missing.”

  “Thanks, Matt.” She looked away from him at the smart wall. “If things take a turn, are you going to have my back?”

  He forced out a laugh. “It really isn’t like that. This is a community, a town. These are our people.”

  “I might believe that in time,” she said. “But imagine my perspective, and try to imagine that somehow the unthinkable happens, and suddenly my existence is no longer tolerated by this Andrei guy. On which side will you fall, old friend?”

  “That’s the second time you’ve called me that,” he said. “You know we are more, and no amount of time will change that.”

  “People change, Matt.”

  “Vampires not so much,” he retorted.

  Cho snickered. “Have you looked in a mirror lately?”

  “Can’t. Vampire.”

  “Har har,” she teased. “You look very relaxed. Is there weed down here?”

  “On occasion,” he replied. “And I am relaxed, because I’m not part of that system out there,” he said, pointing. “I’m a half mile underground and unplugged from all the bullshit.”

  “It must get boring sometimes,” said Tsenka.

  “I find ways of entertaining myself. I’ll show you some later.”

  “You know,” she said, “I think I will get some rest. How do I call you?”

  Matthias pointed to the phone. “One seven four four,” he said. “I’ll check on you later.”

  “Right.”

  “And Tsenka, if anyone bothers you or wants to chat, be nice.”

  “Yes, daddy.”

  He smiled. “Haven’t been called that in a while. See you.”

  “Yeah, see you.”

  The door slid shut and Tsenka was alone, though she suspected they would have cameras and microphones planted in the room. She looked at the wall then shook her head and relaxed onto her back.

  “You can sense it, can’t you?” said Desre, appearing next to the bed and causing the vampire to startle. “The tension, the shadows, the hidden agendas.”

  “I know I didn’t come here to settle down,” replied Cho. “And you are a fucking liar, girl.”

  Desre’s expression became strained. But the rest of her visage and surrounding image never changed. Always the same nondescript room and always with the headgear that Tsenka assumed made her transmission possible.

  “I may be a manipulator,” she acknowledged. “But I am still your friend, and he may not know it, but Matthias does need your help. It wasn’t easy, but I’ve sent you a couple keys.”

  “To what?”

  “This might be hard to believe, but I don’t know,” claimed Somer. “But when you figure that out, you’ll know you are on the right track.”

  Tsenka sat up and faced Desre. “Right track to what?”

  “The truth. About Haven, about the UTI, about you and me. But I can’t push you there, it doesn’t work. You have to find it. Good luck.”

  “Wait!” yell
ed Cho, but Desre disregarded her plea and faded away. “Bitch... you are testing my patience.”

  Tsenka stood and moved to the wall. “Just you and me now.” She waved her hand in front of it, and it woke up, greeting her with, “Hello, Ms. Cho. Would you like a tutorial of my interface?”

  “Can you sync with my implant?” she asked it.

  “I am not equipped with that ability.”

  “Hmm,” replied Cho, not content to manually control the device. “You can see me, right?”

  “Affirmative.”

  “Can you transmit to my synthetic optics?”

  “Querying,” it responded. Then, “Yes, I have found a compatible driver; please wait.”

  Light shot from a small dot on the wall, flickering and changing hues at a speed that made it look like a dull gray to Tsenka’s natural eye. A message appeared in her HUD requesting permission to open a connection. She granted it and a new interface appeared in front of her. Cho began using her thoughts to move virtual screens around and access various parts of the intranet.

  She started with the new arrivals packets. Her perfect recall and text processing engines devoured them, directly conveying comprehension to her brain matter. She moved to the available history texts, which contained not only a detailed history of the Refuge itself but also of vampirism.

  This is going to take a while, she realized. But if it takes me a year, I will tear this place apart from the inside. They may have brainwashed Matt, but not me.

  * * *

  The Vitruvian man stood naked in the middle of a dimly lit cell, its walls of poured cement laced with neutralized polonium. It smelled of feces, his feces. On his head rested the wire frame of a bulky helmet with thick needles stabbing into his scalp. A bundle of cords rose from it to the ceiling.

  The floor tilted inward to a drainage hole. His body was almost dry now, having been hosed off an hour earlier. Dark gray hair covered his chest, legs, and buttocks. He was old, but did not look completely frail. His feet were positioned in a wide stance and chained to pitons sticking out of the cement while his arms were held fast by large steel bracers attached to thick chain links leading to the ceiling. A metal harness attached to a pole wrapped around his torso, keeping him upright and secure. Taq Jones had seen better days.